Skated at Elm starting at 6:30 pm. Hardly anyone skiing but something going on somewhere as the main lot and the overflow lots were both full. This forced me to park at the remote lot, which was a bit of a concern as I was planning on staying on the man-made loop and only had my best skis with me. The remote lot is an icy mess. Tip-toing to the trailhead in skate boots was more than a bit scary. The Northern Lights trail from the remote lot to the man-made loop was in decent shape most of the way; hard packed and rutted but all white. I did hit some patches of ice on that last 200-300 meter stretch before reaching the connection at the top of the donut hill. The man-made loop was very hard packed and slippery, which I have begrudgingly accepted as the price for only being able to ski after work at a point in the day where hundreds of skiers have already put in thousands of laps. However, the man-made loop condition was particularly disappointing this evening as it had a bizarre rut about 2-4" deep and maybe a foot wide traveling the entire circumference of the loop, as though the groomer was dragging a basketball around. Negotiating that 2-3 times per lap was more complexity than I needed with the conditions already being firm and slippery. After biffing hard on my second lap, I called Uncle and attempted to carefully ski back to the remote lot. Most of the return was still white until I got to the bottom of the hill. There were several large patches of ice across the trail at the lowest points, I carefully double poled through there but I do have now have a few mild marks on my formerly pristine best skis.

(Leif Irgens)

Outer (natural snow) loop is groomed! Tracks set on part of outer loop (to Lake loop cutoff). Great conditions... Debated saying A or B skis. Only areas of concern I saw were some very few frozen slush patches.

(Sue Schroeder)

Just skied the manmade as it didn't look like the other trails had been groomed. The uphills were getting sugary but you could take Wayne's Spur, which was firm, off to the left before the Wall. The snow is getting a little dirty in spots now. Classic track was fast and firm.

(Mark Lahtinen)

Obviously no grooming due to Christmas. I stayed on the man-made loop and the skate deck was packed hard and a bit glazed over. Really hard to get and edge. The classic tracks appeared to be in excellent condition.

(Don Callander)

Skated the outer loops. There is now a classic track that starts at the Eagle Trail. From the manmade to that point there was not a classic track set yet. I noted that there was also a double classic track going to and coming from the Nature Center. There is a single classic track on the main trail starting form where the Eagle joins it just before the Nature Center trail branches off. The classic tracks looked good and, as with the skate lane, there are those pesky leaves in spots.

(Mark Lahtinen)

Great classic ski this morning, grooming was perfect. Adequate kick with blue wax. Tracks were fast, as going down the doughnut -- had to lift my outside ski a lot on the curve to stay in track. Northern Light ski trail is now tracked, but only natural snow.

(Earl Stabenow)

Started with a classic ski on the man made loop around 6:30pm. The tracks were in good shape all the way around except for a few short sections of partial washout. They were pretty hard and fast and I again struggled with kick on my skins in places (I guess I need to stop procrastinating and get my waxable skis out to see if they will bite any better on these firm tracks). There were two places where leaf litter made the tracks rather difficult - going into the far donut and the top of the keyhole hill just past where the Northern Lights trail comes back in. After a few laps, I switched to skating and found the skate deck to be extremely firm - to the point of not being able to hold an edge and turning my skate session into an evening of flailing arms and legs, fighting to keep my skis under me. At one point, I stopped and tested the snow, finding it so firm I couldn't make a dent in it with my thumb. After a few laps of battling the man-made loop, I detoured onto the Northern Lights loop. That was a bit softer but uneven enough to provide a different set of balance challenging conditions. The one really great section was the 10-foot path the groomer left when driving across the trails on his way back to the garage after grooming the downhill area. I think I would have been happy to buy the fuel necessary for him to take a lap around the man made loop tonight.

(Leif Irgens)

I skated the outer skate loops this morning starting at 8:30. Conditions were very good. All were freshly packed, but not tracked. The skate deck was in great shape, just a bit soft, with complete snow coverage, and minimal leaf/twig debris. Oddly, Eagle Trail was freshly tracked (shallow), but there were no classic tracks before Eagle, and they only extended a short distance past the end of Eagle. The connector to the Monarch Trail was packed but not tracked. The Creek Trail Bypass remains closed. Best Dark Side conditions yet for the season.

(Ron Refsnider)

Skied the Valley and Lake trails on classic skis. Valley Trail (snowmaking) was excellent. No tracks set on Lake Trail (natural snow), but by skiing in the soft snow at the edges of the packed trail, skis tracked pretty straight most of the time. No bare ground and few sticks or leaves.

Photos:

(Craig Wiklund, North Star Ski Touring Club)

Nice that the short loop around chalet was groomed perfect as it usually is but we skied the outer loop which was packed but not groomed. Not sure why, as in past years on almost a daily basis the outer loops were groomed perfect.

(Terry Kerber)